Samantha Liguori September 18th, 2010 Dr. Fogleman EDC 102H Effects My Early School Settings Had on My Education I have to admit, I did not realize that every school setting could be drastically different until I began reading A Hope in the Unseen. I can honestly say I have had a very successful education due to where I began going to school. From preschool to high school, the four different schools I attended each gave me a special education. My mom still jokes today about how she signed me up for preschool at Central Baptist Church before I was even born. It is a very popular preschool in my hometown because it is a developmental preschool. A developmental preschool focuses more on social skills and play, rather than focusing on academics. Sixteen years later, preschools around my town are run more like kindergarten, where it is more academically based and structured. At Central Baptist Church I learned how to correctly interact with children my age, playing imaginative and role play based games. Playing games and doing arts and crafts also helped develop my gross and fine motor skills. Dunn’s Corners Elementary School was a big change from Central Baptist Church. I started taking the school bus every day to my kindergarten class. Unlike preschool, we were seated at desks for periods of time, where we learned to use a pencil to write our name, numbers, and letters. Even though we still had playtime, more of it was spent playing games that were academic based. My teacher implemented flashcards and counting cubes into playtime as often as she could. I stayed at Dunn’s Corners until I “graduated” from the fifth grade. During my time at Dunn’s Corners, I always had a teacher who pushed me to my highest academic potential. By third grade, I was placed into a gifted and talented program. I left my class for at least an hour twice a week to go work on higher level reading, writing, and math. This made me enjoy learning and also taught me to take pride in my work, something that is key to my academic success I have today. When I began sixth grade at Babcock Middle School, I was determined to receive straight A’s on my report cards. Some of my teachers even had to give me extra worksheets to keep me busy, as I worked so rigorously I finished early. Projects were my favorite part of middle school. All of the graded rubrics I received back stated that I went above and beyond the expectations of my teachers. Many of my teachers even kept some of my projects and papers to show to upcoming students. The combination of my love for learning and success in middle school set me up perfectly for even greater success in high school. Teachers who learned quickly of my academic record challenged me. They knew I had a hunger for academic success, so they never “lightened up the load.” One example would be when I broke my collar bone freshman year. I broke my collarbone on the left side, coincidentally the hand I right with, and even more convenient the week of final exams. I currently had an A in most of my classes except for one, biology- I had an A-. Instead of exempting me like all of my other teachers, she wanted me to take the exam. Not only did she want me to take the exam, she wanted me to draw all of the cell structures we were studying and do the animal dissections, with my arm out of it’s sling! If I did not learn about perseverance then, I do not know if I would ever know what it was. Perseverance, pride in my schoolwork, and determination to be successful, are all due to the my early school settings. The schools in my town prepared me for an even more successful first year of college. My second and start of my third year have been just as successful, which I do not think I could do without the education school settings I spent most of my life in.
Dr. Fogleman EDC 102H
Effects My Early School Settings Had on My Education
I have to admit, I did not realize that every school setting could be drastically different until I began reading A Hope in the Unseen. I can honestly say I have had a very successful education due to where I began going to school. From preschool to high school, the four different schools I attended each gave me a special education.
My mom still jokes today about how she signed me up for preschool at Central Baptist Church before I was even born. It is a very popular preschool in my hometown because it is a developmental preschool. A developmental preschool focuses more on social skills and play, rather than focusing on academics. Sixteen years later, preschools around my town are run more like kindergarten, where it is more academically based and structured. At Central Baptist Church I learned how to correctly interact with children my age, playing imaginative and role play based games. Playing games and doing arts and crafts also helped develop my gross and fine motor skills.
Dunn’s Corners Elementary School was a big change from Central Baptist Church. I started taking the school bus every day to my kindergarten class. Unlike preschool, we were seated at desks for periods of time, where we learned to use a pencil to write our name, numbers, and letters. Even though we still had playtime, more of it was spent playing games that were academic based. My teacher implemented flashcards and counting cubes into playtime as often as she could.
I stayed at Dunn’s Corners until I “graduated” from the fifth grade. During my time at Dunn’s Corners, I always had a teacher who pushed me to my highest academic potential. By third grade, I was placed into a gifted and talented program. I left my class for at least an hour twice a week to go work on higher level reading, writing, and math. This made me enjoy learning and also taught me to take pride in my work, something that is key to my academic success I have today.
When I began sixth grade at Babcock Middle School, I was determined to receive straight A’s on my report cards. Some of my teachers even had to give me extra worksheets to keep me busy, as I worked so rigorously I finished early. Projects were my favorite part of middle school. All of the graded rubrics I received back stated that I went above and beyond the expectations of my teachers. Many of my teachers even kept some of my projects and papers to show to upcoming students.
The combination of my love for learning and success in middle school set me up perfectly for even greater success in high school. Teachers who learned quickly of my academic record challenged me. They knew I had a hunger for academic success, so they never “lightened up the load.” One example would be when I broke my collar bone freshman year. I broke my collarbone on the left side, coincidentally the hand I right with, and even more convenient the week of final exams. I currently had an A in most of my classes except for one, biology- I had an A-. Instead of exempting me like all of my other teachers, she wanted me to take the exam. Not only did she want me to take the exam, she wanted me to draw all of the cell structures we were studying and do the animal dissections, with my arm out of it’s sling! If I did not learn about perseverance then, I do not know if I would ever know what it was.
Perseverance, pride in my schoolwork, and determination to be successful, are all due to the my early school settings. The schools in my town prepared me for an even more successful first year of college. My second and start of my third year have been just as successful, which I do not think I could do without the education school settings I spent most of my life in.